Albert Cheesebrough

Albert Cheesebrough (born 17 January 1935) is an English former footballer. A forward, he scored 88 goals in 345 leagues games over a sixteen-year professional career in the Football League.

Albert Cheesebrough

Personal information
Full name	Albert Cheesebrough[1]
Date of birth	(1935-01-17) 17 January 1935[1]
Place of birth	Burnley, England[1]
Playing position(s)	Forward
Youth career
1950–1951	Burnley
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1951–1959	Burnley	142	(35)
1959–1963	Leicester City	122	(40)
1963–1965	Port Vale	57	(13)
1965–1967	Mansfield Town	24	(0)
Total		345	(88)
National team
1956	England under-23	1	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Turning professional with Burnley in 1951, he spent the next eight years at the club, making 158 appearances in league and cup competitions. Signing with Leicester City in 1959, he went on to play for the "Foxes" in the 1961 FA Cup Final. He moved on to Port Vale in 1963, and after recovering from injury he became the club's top-scorer in 1964–65, before he transferred to Mansfield Town in 1965. He spent two years with Mansfield before he was forced to retire due to injury. He won one cap for the England under-23s in 1956.

Club career

Born in Burnley, Lancashire, Cheesebrough joined Burnley as a 15-year-old in the summer of 1950, after a series of outstanding performances as captain of his school team, Rosegrove, and for representative schoolboy teams at town and county level for Lancashire.[2] He signed professional terms on his 17th birthday in January 1952, and made his First Division debut against Manchester United three months later, before notching his first senior goal against Chelsea in April 1952.[2] Though he played five games in 1951–52, he featured just once in 1952–53 and then played eight times in 1954–55 after failing to make an appearance in the entirety of the 1953–54 campaign.[3]

After manager Frank Hill was replaced by Alan Brown, Cheesebrough became a regular for the "Clarets" at inside-forward in the 1955–56 season, linking up well on the left-wing with Brian Pilkington.[4] He scored six goals in his 41 appearances. On 7 November 1957, he scored a hat-trick in a 7–3 victory over Leicester City.[2] He finished the 1956–57 season with 12 goals in 45 games. He retained his first team place under new boss Billy Dougall, and bagged 14 goals in 42 games in the 1957–58 season.[3] However Dougall was replaced by Harry Potts, who favoured upcoming youngster Jimmy Robson ahead of Cheesebrough, limiting him to seven goals and 18 appearances in 1958–59.[3] In total Cheesebrough made 158 appearances, scoring 40 goals, in his nine years at Turf Moor.[3]

He was sold to Matt Gillies's Leicester City in June 1959 for a fee of £20,000.[5] At Filbert Street, Cheesebrough was the club's top-scorer in 1959–60 with 17 goals in 45 appearances.[6] He then hit 12 goals in 42 games in 1960–61, and was part of the City side who were defeated 2–0 by Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.[6][7] He scored 11 goals in 26 games in 1961–62, as City posted a 14th-place finish in the league.[6] He hit three goals in 25 games in 1962–63,[6] but was not included in the "Foxes" side that lost to Manchester United in the 1963 FA Cup Final.[3]

He moved to Freddie Steele's Port Vale for a then club record fee of £15,000 in July 1963.[1] He opened his account at Vale Park with a hat-trick in a 3–0 win over Brentford on 16 September.[1] In November of that year however he underwent a cartilage operation, and his recovery kept him out of action for the rest of the 1963–64 season; he scored seven goals in 27 games that season.[1]

He proved his determination by returning to fitness in the 1964–65 season and finishing as the club's top-scorer, though with a grand total of seven goals in 32 games it was the first time since David Bowcock in 1917–18 that such a low total earned a player this accolade.[1] The "Valiants" scored just 41 goals all season long, and the arrival of Jackie Mudie could not prevent an inevitable relegation out of the Third Division.[1] He moved on to Mansfield Town on a free transfer in July 1965.[1] The "Stags" were managed by former teammate Tommy Cummings.[3] He made 24 Third Division appearances at Field Mill in 1965–66 and 1966–67, before a broken leg ended his career.[3]

International career

He also made one appearance for England at Under-23 level against France at Bristol City's Ashton Gate Stadium in 1956.[4]

Post-retirement and family

After retiring from the game he went on to run a butcher's shop business in Southport; he had learned the ropes of the meat trade whilst playing at Port Vale.[5]

His daughter, Susan, represented Great Britain at the 1980 Summer Olympics as a gymnast,[8] and was British national champion in 1978 and 1979.[5][9] His grandfather, also named Albert Cheesebrough, was killed by sniper fire shortly after the Second Battle of Krithia in World War I.[10]

Statistics

Source:[11][12]

Club	Season	Division	League		FA Cup		Other		Total
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Burnley	1951–52	First Division	5	1	0	0	0	0	5	1
	1952–53	First Division	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	1953–54	First Division	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	1954–55	First Division	7	0	1	0	0	0	8	0
	1955–56	First Division	35	6	6	0	0	0	41	6
	1956–57	First Division	40	8	5	4	0	0	45	12
	1957–58	First Division	40	13	2	1	0	0	42	14
	Total		142	35	16	5	0	0	158	40
Leicester City	1959–60	First Division	41	15	4	2	0	0	45	17
	1960–61	First Division	35	11	5	0	2	1	42	12
	1961–62	First Division	23	11	2	0	1	0	26	11
	1962–63	First Division	23	3	0	0	2	0	25	3
	Total		122	40	11	2	5	1	138	43
Port Vale	1963–64	Third Division	25	6	1	1	1	0	27	7
	1964–65	Third Division	32	7	0	0	0	0	32	7
	Total		57	13	1	1	1	0	59	14
Mansfield Town	1965–66	Third Division	20	0	1	0	2	0	23	0
	1966–67	Third Division	4	0	1	0	1	0	6	0
	Total		24	0	2	0	3	0	29	0
Career total			345	88	30	8	9	1	384	97

Honours

Leicester City

• FA Cup runner-up: 1961

References

1. Kent, Jeff (1996). Port Vale Personalities. Witan Books. p. 59. ISBN 0-9529152-0-0.
2. "ALBERT CHEESEBROUGH Soccer Slaves? Don't You Believe It". geocities.com. Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
3. Scholes, Tony (12 July 2007). "Albert Cheesebrough". Retrieved 14 May 2009.
4. "Albert Cheesebrough". Burnley F.C. official website. 17 November 2004. Archived from the original on 10 February 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
5. Pete Olive (13 April 1999). "The life and times of former Clarets star Albert Cheesebrough". thisislancashire.co.uk. Archived from the original on 3 January 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
6. "Albert Cheesebrough". foxestalk.co.uk. Archived from the original on 7 May 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
7. "Tottenham Hotspur 2 Leicester City 0". fa-cupfinals.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 May 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
8. "Susan Cheesebrough Olympic Results". Sports-Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
9. "National champions by country". designedbytim.com (GymnStands). Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
10. "Private Albert Cheesebrough". burnleyinthegreatwar.info. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
11. Albert Cheesebrough at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
12. Albert Cheesebrough at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Database